Teresa McCune

Chief Public Defender, Public Defender Corp. for the Thirtieth Judicial Circuit

By Olivia Miller

Teresa McCune, the chief public defender for the Thirtieth Judicial Circuit in Mingo County, WV, has had a lifelong love affair with small-town life. Her early childhood was spent in a West Virginia hollow, where she played in the creek by her home and ate pawpaws from the tree in the yard. When she was 9, she and her family—her parents and brother and sister—moved to Belle, WV, where she and her siblings rode their bikes all around town. On Sundays, they drove to her grandparents’ farm, where her aunts, uncles and cousins gathered for a weekly visit. That hollow, small town and hilltop farm were where McCune’s family instilled in her traditional West Virginia values from a young age.

“My grandfather and father were big into union activities, so I learned a lot about the mine wars as a very young child,” she says. “I guess I identified with those fighting for justice pretty early on.”

According to McCune, her father predicted her career as a lawyer long before she did, recalling that when she was a child, she would plead to the parental court for mercy for her siblings, even when they had destroyed her toys. Her father labeled her as the great defender.

While McCune didn’t dream of having a particular career as a child, there was always an expectation she would go to college. “As a little girl I thought there were only two jobs for women—teaching and nursing—and I definitely did not want to be a nurse. As I grew up, my dad never made me feel as though there was anything I couldn’t do as a woman.”

True to her parents’ dreams for her, McCune graduated high school and enrolled at Marshall University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in international affairs. After graduation, she began her career as a social worker for the West Virginia Department of Welfare. It was during this time McCune made the decision to go to law school. After three years of working for Child Protective Services, she had grown increasingly frustrated with the way a particular lawyer interacted with children in the courtroom.

“I came home and told my husband that if that guy could be a lawyer, so could I,” she says. “He told me to prove it, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

In 1977, when the hundred-year flood occurred in Mingo County, McCune was making plans to leave the Department of Welfare and start law school when she was sent to help with flood recovery efforts. Although her family had traveled around much of the state, she had never been to the towns of Logan or Williamson. She was immediately smitten with Southern West Virginia.

“As social workers, we were given the daunting and sad task of having folks fill out descriptions of all they had lost in the flood so they could receive their state grants,” she remembers. “The people I met were kind, gentle, friendly and generous. They most always wanted to tell us the story of someone who had suffered worse than they had. I just fell in love with the rugged beauty of the place and the warmth of the people. I decided this was where I wanted to practice after law school.”

McCune earned her law degree at Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C. She chose Antioch because it had a reputation for being a progressive school that recruited students who wanted to practice law in the public interest, which was a perfect fit for McCune.

After graduating with a juris doctor in 1980, McCune began her first job in the legal profession as a lawyer for the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund—or Appalred—in Logan and then in Williamson. While this kind of work was important, she quickly realized civil law was not the path she wanted to pursue. From there, she joined a friend in a private practice for a couple of years, did another one-year stint at Legal Services Plan and then accepted the position in the public defender’s office that she’s held for the last 29 years.

In 1990, McCune was recruited to open Mingo County’s first public defender office by Justice Spike Maynard.

“Spike convinced me I could handle the job,” she says. “Within three weeks of opening the office, I felt I had finally found my niche in the law profession. I love my job. I love the people I work with. I look forward to coming to work every day. Each case presents a new particular challenge, and I learn new things all the time. Thirty years ago, I never would have dreamed that I would one day shoot a gun or read autopsy reports or explain toxicology reports to a jury, but today I do.”

The focus of McCune’s practice as chief public defender is homicide cases and juvenile law. She represents low-income defendants and frequently acts as lead counsel on the office’s most challenging, high-profile cases. Under her leadership, the public defender’s office has grown to be the largest law firm in Mingo County. Because of the office’s presence in the county, clients have the opportunity to be represented by attorneys with almost 80 years of combined criminal law experience.

Throughout the course of her career, McCune has emerged as an influential leader in the community, attending city council meetings and volunteering and serving on several committees and boards. Living by the words of Kanawha County Chief Public Defender George Castelle, who once said, “It’s not what you can accomplish by being present, it’s about what won’t happen because you are there,” she has made it a priority to be as civically involved as possible. As a result, she has worked to establish an office presence at Mingo County Commission, Williamson City Council and Tug Valley Chamber of Commerce meetings, along with many others

“For the most part, government officials have appreciated our input so that future problems could be avoided,” she says. “We have learned that increased civic involvement leads to better outcomes for our clients in many cases.”

In addition to her civic engagement, McCune founded the On Track for College program for high school students after assisting her son, Ryan, with his college application process. She wanted to use the knowledge she gained from this experience to help students in Mingo and Pike counties attend the best schools possible. Since the inception of On Track for College in 2002, McCune has volunteered her time in helping more than 130 students seeking scholarships and applying for college. These students have been admitted to Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale, Brown and Columbia, as well as numerous public universities.

“It’s not rocket science,” she says. “Financial aid is out there locally, regionally and nationally. The trick is preparing for it. If the student has maintained a current résumé and has a good essay or two, he or she is ready to apply for most scholarships.”

McCune also serves as the chair of the board of directors for Christian Help of Mingo County. Under her leadership, Christian Help provides direct aid programs focusing on clothing, food, utility payments, transportation and various other needs. McCune also serves on the board of governors and the criminal law committees for the state bar and various committees at Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Williamson. She sits on the education committee of the Williamson Woman’s Club and the Mingo/Pike branch of the American Association of University Women, and she serves as vice president for the American Association of University Women’s West Virginia branch.

In an effort to support other women, McCune and her friends host celebratory off-to-college showers every summer for local girls who are preparing to start their college careers. Playing off of traditional
baby and bridal showers, McCune, alongside local businesses, showers girls with items necessary for college, including school supplies and dorm room apparel.

She has received many awards and accolades for her diligent work over her long career, including the King Coal Festival Humanitarian Award, West Virginia University Women’s Law Caucus’ Distinguished Woman in the Law Award for Public Interest, West Virginia Governor’s Service Award, Outstanding Service to Youth Award, Mentor of the Year Award and West Virginia State Bar Certificate of Merit. She was also named a Foundation Fellow of the West Virginia Bar Foundation, Lawyer Citizen of the Year by the West Virginia Bar Foundation and Champion of Justice by the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Despite McCune’s many professional successes, however, she considers her greatest success to be raising her son, Ryan, who is also a lawyer. “Ryan is a loving husband and father, an impressive lawyer and a very kind and generous person,” she says. “I often say children just become who they are even in the face of adversity, but if I had any part in forming my son, it is definably my proudest achievement.”